Religion in the News is to be commended for trying to explain the
religious issues dividing Palestinians and Israelis. Unfortunately, you
only got a third of the way there. Israeli Yoel Cohen summarized
different Jewish perspectives but Rachel Stroumsa, formerly of the Jerusalem
Post, did not do her homework and fell short on Christian and Muslim
views and concerns. Consider some points in her essay ["Rites of
Return," Spring 2001]:

Stroumsa says the Palestinian press reported that Yasser Arafat’s
presence at a Christmas Eve mass was to express "unity" with
Christianity but this is not correct. "The Christians I spoke
with" felt that Arafat exhibited "disrespect" for
Christianity and arrived at exactly 12:00 to identify himself with "the
Christian expectation of Christ’s arrival at midnight." Really? At
midnight? For Arafat to make such a claim about the greatest of all
prophets, other than the final one, would be a great haram (sin),
doubly so since Muslims also expect Christ’s return.

Stroumsa says the Al Aqsa mosque is "built on the site where,
Muslims believe, Muhammad landed after a miraculous single night’s journey
from Mecca." No Muslim believes this. Mohammed landed at the base
of the mount, where the Western Wall is. The Moughrabi neighborhood was
there before it was leveled by the Israelis immediately after the 1967 War
to expand their worship area. Muslims call that place The Burraq Wall in
honor of the steed that carried the prophet and was tethered at that site.
It was a place of reverence for Muslims before their removal.

Stroumsa says references to Israelis have been replaced in Palestinian
broadcasts by references to "the Jews," showing a religious
mindset. In fact, Palestinians routinely refer to people in the Jewish state
as yehudi (Jews). This is not new, nor is it hostile.

Stroumsa says the Palestinian right to return has been "sacralized"
and "transformed…into a religious issue…" The evidence? The
Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem Michael (sic) Sabbah not only calls himself
a refugee [he is] but drew a parallel between Palestinian refugees and the
plight of Jesus "who lived as a refugee in a cave." Any Christian
would know that the family of Jesus fled as refugees into Egypt and would
not find such a reference unusual. A Palestinian Christian (or even an
American tourist in Egypt) could probably identify the sites where tradition
says the Holy Family hid. A Christian theologian would understand the
concept of the Incarnation and how it links the suffering of Jesus to the
suffering of people everywhere. Apparently not familiar with Christian
traditions, Stroumsa heard these comments as political rhetoric.

Regarding Muslims, Stroumsa says "some newspaper columnists"
declare the return of refugees to be fardh ayn or a personal
obligation under Islam. She says, "a refugee who does not attempt to
return to his ancestral home is transgressing a religious law." There
is not a single Muslim in the world who believes newspaper columnists have
the right to make rulings on religious law. This is reserved for the
religious scholars.

On why negotiations over the return of refugees fell apart, Stroumsa says
resolving that problem would shift attention to Jerusalem and
"Jerusalem tends to bring to the fore tensions between Christians and
Muslims Palestinians." She says "agreements on compensation were
achieved" but a Jerusalem cleric ruled that refugees cannot be forced
to take money if they prefer to return home. Leaving aside the fact that
many refugees are Christians, it is highly unlikely that even a single
exiled Palestinian in any of the camps would see Christian-Muslim disputes
in Jerusalem as relevant to their right to return.

Finally, Stroumsa seems not to understand that when Arafat’s Islamist
opponents call for Islamic government they specifically exempt Christian
holy sites such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. When the Caliph Omar
(whom she mentions) visited Jerusalem in 636 he guaranteed Christian
autonomy and incorporated Christian religious rights into Islamic law. Every
Muslim knows this. The Hamas charter specifically refers to Omar and his
policies, as did Patriarch Michel Sabbah in a recent statement. There
is no Islamic plan to take over Christian holy sites.

Stroumsa is correct that the religious impulse is on the rise. It might
be useful to have more knowledgeable specialists discuss why this is true.

Ron Stockton
Professor of Political Science
The University of Michigan-Dearborn

I am grateful for Professor Stockton’s close attention, but feel it is
a pity that he did not respond to the main issue raised in the article. My
contention was (and still is) that by manipulating various religious beliefs
and traditions, elements in the Palestinian Authority have attempted to
endow the right of return with a pan-religious aura. As Professor Stockton
correctly indicates, many of the Palestinian refugees are Christians. My
purpose in the article was to show that because of this, the right of return
serves as a unifying point for Palestinians in a way that the overtly
religious issue of Jerusalem cannot.

While I did not, in fact, contend that there is "an Islamic plan to
take over the Christian holy sites" in Jerusalem, it seems at best
naïve to pretend that there are no tensions between Christian and Muslim
Palestinians. These tensions manifested themselves on the Israeli side of
the Green Line in Nazareth during the spring of 2000, and are also attested
to by the long-standing reluctance of Christian authorities in Jerusalem to
declare themselves in favor of PA rule over the Christian quarter. Given
these underlying tensions, the sacralization of the right of return displays
political savvy.

For the sake of brevity I will address only a few of Professor Stockton’s
other concerns. My intention was not to analyze the complex topography of
the Haram al-Sharif and its meaning, but I would point out that while
educated and folktraditions regarding specific sites within the
Haram differ, they commonly say that the Western Wall was not the point of
the Prophet’s ascension (although some say that the mare al-Buraq
was tethered there).

In general, Professor Stockton does not distinguish among claims made in
the Palestinian press, opinions voiced by religious or political key
figures, and popular views. Thus, whilehe is correct that
Palestinians routinely refer to Israelis as Jews, my argument was based on
the observation that this usage has recently becomecommon on
Palestinian television and radio broadcasts. Professor Stockton thinks this
does not denote hostility; although I am inclinedto differ, the
article itself did not venture a view; itsimply pointed out that
this has contributed to casting the national struggle in a religious light.

Palestinian national identity is built within the context of an evolving
national struggle. I attempted to identify new trends within the current
situation. Professor Stockton is right in saying that I have seen comments
using religious traditions by Palestinian authorities as political rhetoric.
That is precisely because I believe religion is beingused to further
political aims.

With respect to the spelling of Patriarch Michel Sabbah’s firstname,
I thank Professor Stockton for correcting my oversight.